Watchmen
Doomsday
Halloween (2007)
Resident Evil: Extinction
Day of the Dead (2007)
300
See No Evil
Slither
The Devil's Rejects
Miss Congeniality 2:
Armed & Fabulous
Baadasssss!:
Dawn of the Dead
You Got Served
City of Ghosts
Love and a Bullet
What's the Worst That Could Happen?
Kingdom Come
Get Carter
Born Bad
Thicker Than Water
The Last Time I Committed Suicide
Ballistic

Composition Credits
(TV)

Gone But Not Forgotten
Black Sash
The Dead Will Tell
Alien Avengers
Strange Frequency
Military Diaries

"Because
I tend to do films that span a broad scope of stylistic components or
cultural components, I tend to approach them not always knowing
exactly what I'm going to do!"

Tyler Bates

Composer Tyler Bates talks about his
recent project DOOMSDAY, paying homage to classic genre films from
the 80s, his upcoming video game score, RISE OF THE ARGONAUTS, and
two more film projects: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and WATCHMEN.

CC: Since 2004, you've
done: DAWN OF THE
DEAD, THE DEVIL'S
REJECTS, SLITHER, SEE
NO EVIL, DAY OF THE
DEAD, 300, HALLOWEEN
and now DOOMSDAY. Are
you attracted to
blood-laden movies?
Does violence or gore
inspire you in some a
special way?

TYLER BATES: It's
funny that you ask
that. Actually, I
cannot say that
violence inspires me
at all; however, I
have had a lot of
close experiences with
violence early on in
life, which makes
these movies pretty
easy for me to relate
to. I would
like to tone down the
death toll in some of
the movies I have
coming up.

CC: So you're
comfortable with the
violence, so to speak?

TYLER BATES: To be
frank, I can't say
that I'm entirely
comfortable with it. I
have two little kids
and that's not
something I want to
subject them to. It's
just turns out that
the film-makers I've
aligned myself with
are making these types
of films and I support
their art, their
vision, and the kind
of people that they
are: Rob Zombie, Zach
snyder, and now Neil
Marshall.

DOOMSDAY was actually
a little more "fun."
So that made it a
little easier to
handle the violence.
Obviously, THE DEVIL'S
REJECTS was quite a
challenge to handle as
I had to watch every
scene of that film
several hundred times,
while working on it.
That leaves an
indelible mark in your
brain, so I have to
find ways to come down
from working on that
each day.

CC: Do you ever just
get an appetite to
score a little,
romantic-comedy?

TYLER BATES: [laughs]
- Sure! Are you
kidding? One thing
about a comedy is that
they usually have 1/3
less music than the
type of genre-films
I've been doing.
Sometimes it gets a
little exhausting
cranking out 80 to 90
minutes of music for a
film and trying to
remain interesting and
continuing to pack a
punch. Nontheless, I
enjoy doing the genre
films a lot they give
me tremendous
opportunities to be
creative and to try
things that might not
be appropriate for
more character driven
films.

CC: How did you get
involved with
DOOMSDAY?

TYLER BATES: Neil
(Marshall) called my agent. It
also just so happened
that a producer on the
film and I had worked
together on a project
years ago when he was
at Screen Gems. Neil
Marshall had listened
to a lot of my music
and liked what he
heard. We really hit
it off. I didn't quite
realize that it was
such an homage to the
80s. When I was
brought on, I was told
it was more CHILDREN
OF MEN meets MAD MAX,
but it's much more
like ESCAPE FROM NEW
YORK meets MAD MAX.
And for me that was a
lot of fun, because I
really into electronic
music and I love the
electronic music from
the 80s. Even though
we didn't have a lot
of time, it was a lot
of fun working on it.

CC: How much time did
you have?

TYLER BATES: I'd say
the better part of 4
and a half weeks, then
we recorded and mixed
in about two weeks.
There's about 90
minutes of music for
the film. Part of our
mixing was overdubbing
and recording rhythm
section. It was pretty
crazy. Still, it was
really pleasant and I
had great time on it.
I really enjoyed the
movie but am a little
disappointed that it
didn't do better at
the box office. That's
how it goes sometimes.

CC: With DOOMSDAY
paying an homage to
MAD MAX and ESCAPE
FROM NEW YORK, did it
any pressure on you.

TYLER BATES: That, in
and of itself, didn't
add any pressure, but
there is something
interesting here.
Because I tend to do
films that span a
broad scope of
stylistic components
or cultural
components, I tend to
approach them not
always knowing exactly
what I'm going to do.
The pressure is really
for me to find what is
going to work this
particular movie. I
can't really look at
other movies that
might be considered
classics. I can't
compare what I'm doing
or about to do with
those films. There's
no way I can compete
with that. There are
just so many great,
historical scores that
have come before my
work. I don't expect
to "best" any of
those. I try though!
[laughs]

CC: Did you use any
vintage synths from
the 80s for DOOMSDAY?

TYLER BATES: Some of
them are. There is a
lot of Yamaha CS80 on
it. I did use a
lot of the Prophet 08,
which is Dave Smith's
new keyboard - the guy
who basically invented
midi - and using that
has been fantastic. I
think it is one of the
best pieces of gear to
come out in a long
time. It was great fun
to work with and it
was a perfect fit for
the film. Also, a lot
of the sounds are
"home made," which is
something I tend to do
with all of the films
I work on.

CC: The guitar is an
important instrument
in many of your bigger
scores. How did you
use the guitar
differently in
DOOMSDAY as opposed to
300?

TYLER BATES: In 300
the guitar was
intended to be very
crude - to embody the
essence of all the
weaponry and
landscape. They were
definitely colder and
menacing and they were
detuned both naturally
and artificially. Now
in DOOMSDAY it was a
lot more fun. While it
was still frenetic and
violent, it's all done
in "fun." Here, the
guitars have a bit of
a more upbeat spirit
to them.

CC: How many different
themes did you write
for DOOMSDAY?

TYLER BATES: There's
one umbrella-theme for
the film. I tend to do
that for films as
opposed to writing
themes for individual
characters. What I'll
do is break off that
main theme and express
it in different ways
depending on the
situation, emotional
exchange, or the
texture the scene. So
I tend not to write
individual themes for
characters when doing
a genre movie. It
would be different if
I were doing a comedy.
In that case, you can
be a little more
literal in your
expression. I have a
tendency to work with
directors who like to
be a little more
obtuse in the way a
theme will play in the
film. They are usually
looking for the theme
to capture the overall
feel of the film. They
don't think the theme
has to dominate or
even be so
recognizable.

CC: The soundtrack to
DOOMSDAY ends on a
surprising note - "The
Can Can." Did you have
a say in that?

TYLER BATES: Oh! I did
not. Neil Marshall put
that in there and I
think its great! I
love all the songs he
selected for the
movie. Once I had seen
a cut of the film and
the songs he had
selected I really
understood what it was
he was doing. We found
out that our personal
music tastes were
similar in many ways.
Frankly, I think the
can-can should have
had a lot more to do
with the marketing of
the film. I think it
would have been cool
and people would have
seen more of the humor
that the film has to
offer.